CycleOps creates Joule bike computer line-up

Jesse Bartholomew, product manager for the CycleOps power meter from the Saris Cycling Group of Wisconsin in America, fronted a press conference at Eurobike.

He has been working on the company’s new Joule bike computers for two years and Eurobike saw the official unveiling of what Bartholomew called the “latest part in the CycleOps eco-system”.

This eco-system consists of PowerTap power meters; PRO Series indoor cycles; PowerAgent software; and PRO series turbo-trainers. On-bike computers complete the circle.

Joule 2.0 is for outdoor use on handlebars and is slightly smaller than Garmin’s Edge series of GPS units. It also features a mono screen and can measure 18 metrics while riding via a customisable dashboard. Joule 3.0 is larger, designed for indoor use on turbo-trainers and studio bikes but can also be used outdoors, although it would take up a fair bit of handlebar real estate.

There’s enough onboard memory for 20 hours of riding and a full years’ historical summary. Pumping out ANT+ data wirelessly means the Joule products are compatible with other companies’ ANT+ power measuring devices.

Available early next year for €399, the Joule 2.0 could be used to capture data on a favourite ride and for that ride’s profile to be brought indoors for use on studio bikes or turbo trainers. In theory, CycleOps could also make available third-party rides –such as Tour de France hill stages, for instance – and these could be placed in an iTunes-style ‘app store’.

Joule 3.0 – which is set to retail for €499 – captures and outputs the same data as the 2.0 model, but with a larger, colour screen.

Journalists who filed indoors for the CycleOps press conference were greeted with an invitation to follow the brand on Twitter –@cycleopspower has over 1,000 followers.

Twitter is now used extensively by many bike trade companies but CycleOps had a reason other than pure micro-marketing when it flagged Twitter: its PowerAgent software can auto upload a user’s ride to the world’s most popular 140-character social media service.